In Reflections and Conversations, Monica Rudquist is both artist and curator, assembling a show highlighting the visual connections between her clay work and her dad’s mark making. At the same time, Monica is contemplating her recent sabbatical, as well as her upcoming retirement from teaching and her return to full-time studio practice. This transition in Monica’s life led her to revisit her dad’s art and archive—Jerry Rudquist modeled life as a teaching artist. In addition to having an active studio practice, he taught painting at Macalester College for 42 years. Noting compositional resemblances in their work, Monica writes:

“... I discovered a series of conversations between our artworks. Similarities, or moments of alignment, in the ways we approach form and space; our tendency to work within a series, utilizing abstraction and surface texture.”

For this exhibition, Monica will debut an immersive sculpture titled Murmuration. Installed on all four walls of the west gallery, the piece interacts with two of Jerry’s painting series—Must We Always Expect War and Warflowers. Taken together, these artworks heighten the dialogue between two-dimensional and three-dimensional abstract forms, transforming the space into a collaborative art installation. The east gallery will highlight Monica’s functional work and wall installations paired with Jerry’s Head and Figure, Gemini and Window paintings. These vignettes emphasize the formal dialogue Monica sees between their work, inviting viewers to witness the harmony in the lines, structures and shapes of the artworks.

This exhibition and the accompanying brochure have been made possible in part by the generous time and financial support of the Beltrandy Rudquist family

Growing up surrounded by my father’s artwork I never really looked closely at it, or considered if my own artwork might have some connection to it. He was my dad. During my 2022–23 sabbatical, I had the opportunity to reflect on our parallel lives as artists who teach, and consider if there was a relationship between our art. 

I see my life reflecting his in many ways: we both began making art early in our lives, we had supportive families, and attended the same graduate school where we met our life partners, who we brought back to Minnesota. Those partners support(ed) us and our creative work unconditionally. Exhibiting our work has been critical to our lives as artists — during his early career in the 1970s, my father was represented by Suzanne Kohn Gallery, and later Groveland Gallery, where he showed his work until his death in 2001. I received exhibition opportunities when I joined the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM) in 1986, and in 1991 I became a founding member of the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. Since then I have participated in local, regional and national solo and group exhibitions, juried exhibitions and art fairs. 

Both my dad and I found teaching was where we engaged with a community that fostered our creativity. My dad’s first and only teaching job was at Macalester College in St. Paul, where he taught painting for 45 years. My path as an educator has been different: I began by teaching all-ages and all mediums classes at art centers across the Twin Cities. My first higher education position was a sabbatical replacement at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, which led to my adjunct and eventual full-time positions here at St. Kate’s. Though Dad never saw my work in higher education, his dedication to teaching and his mentorship of students became a model for my own approach. From lesson plans on the dining room table to students who became lifelong friends, my work as an educator mirrors my dad’s role as an art professor. 

My father was my first mentor, showing me how I could live my life as an artist and have a thriving family. We both filled the traditional role of caretaker. Our partners, both architects, had demanding careers of their own and teaching provided a flexible schedule that allowed for engaging in school activities with our kids, helping with homework and making daily dinners. My dad was always ‘working’ with a drawing book by his side, the dining room table covered with schoolwork and a small workspace for painting in our sunroom. Yet he was always there for his family, and we knew that we came first. His work ethic and ability to balance home activities, daily art practice and the work of being an educator is something that I have strived for but have learned is difficult to sustain. We share an internal need/drive to make/create that is more of a lifestyle as opposed to a career that can be separated from our being. 

My sabbatical made it clear that teaching through the pandemic had left me creatively drained. I needed to return to my studio practice full-time in order to make work. This led me to the difficult realization that I needed to retire from teaching. It was also at this time that I began sorting through my dad’s archive with my sister; I was looking closely at my dad’s art for the first time, and I discovered a series of conversations between our artworks. Similarities, or moments of alignment, in the ways we approach form and space; our tendency to work within a series, utilizing abstraction and surface texture. 

These conversations led to my new work titled Murmuration. Working on this installation and curating this exhibition brought me back to my studio and re-energized me. I haven’t felt this free in the studio for a while, where I could experiment, trust myself, and just work. As my mom used to say “make what is in your head because no one else will.” Thank you, Mom and Dad, for helping me through this big transition. 

- Monica Rudquist, Assistant Professor of Art Department of Art and Art History, St. Catherine University